Star Wars, Duel of the Fates: Chapter Five- The Revelation

**For previous chapters, refer to the Table of Contents**

               Poe contemplated his hand a moment longer before nodding back at Finn.

               "Ok, you're up, buddy."

               Finn considered his own hand, then moved two more tokens from his pile towards the pot at the side of the table. Upping the bet yet again.

               "Alright, alright, playing dangerous" Poe muttered challengingly, speaking with the tone he would use if they were playing at a real sabacc table at a proper Corellian gambling joint, with actual money and genuine stakes at play.

               If only, Poe thought to himself in exapseration for probably the hundredth time, Stars, if only.

               Try as he might, Poe just could not get himself to adjust to the overwhelming lack of action that now pervaded their daily lives. He was a man constitutionally incapable of sitting still for too long before getting real antsy. With so little capacity left to communicate and move between worlds, the rebels had to limit flights and missions as much as possible to avoid detection. Even around Talrezan Four itself, Leia had decided to limit recon flights to the bare minimum, just in case First Order ships appeared in the system at the wrong time.

               The end result was a far more sedentary routine than Poe had ever known before. Even in the darkest days of the earlier rebellion, there was always some mission that needed doing, and he was always the first to jump at the chance to do them. Now, real activity was few and far between. Kuat had been the rare exception, and even though the mission ultimately went sideways by the end, Poe had relished the chance to be doing something again, to at leasy try and get the Rebellion back on solid ground. Since then, though, it had been back to days upon days at base camp, with no idea what would come next.

               Not that he didn't understand why Leia was being so careful. He'd learned the hard way the price of rashness, and with the Rebellion as strung out as it was now, any mistake on their part really could mean their end. Poe would rather die than let that happen.

               Didn't mean he had to like being grounded like this, though, and boy, did he not like it. He and Finn had, by now, resorted to coming up with about 50 of their own varieties of sabacc to try and kill time, inventing ever-more elaborite systems of betting money and riches they most definitely did not possess to give themselves a reason to play.

               If he didn't have Finn, or Rose, or Rey around to connect with like this, Poe thought, he would have gone completely insane by this point.

               After considering whether or not he wanted to risk pulling another card, Poe decided against it.

               "Alright, show hands," he said, laying down his cards; he had 21, nearly a perfect sabacc hand.

               Finn smiled and laid his down in response; 22.

               "Damn," Poe smiled, as Finn swept the "pot" towards his side, "got me again. How'd you get so good at this anyway? Until I taught you you'd never played this before."

               "Dunno," Finn replied sheepishly, clearly letting himself bask a bit. "Sixth sense, I guess."

               "At the sabacc table again, eh?" A warm, chuckling voice came up behind Poe. He turned around to see Lando Calrissian, beaming with that usual nuclear-powered smile of his.

               "Hey General. Yes sir. Gotta kill time somehow."

               "Care if I join you?"

               Poe laughed a bit, "With all due respect, General, we know your reputation. I don't think Finn and I would stand much of a chance."

               Lando beamed again and winked, "Yeah, you're probably right. Anyway, once you fellas are done, Leia would like a word. Any of you seen Rey today?"

               Poe shook his head no. "Not yet. Finn?"

               He shook his head too. "Me neither. Should I go look for her?"

               "Let's both look," Poe responded, gathering his deck back up, "I need to stretch my legs before they turn to stone."

               Rey was, at that moment, sitting cross-legged in her training glade, flipping through another of the crinkled Jedi books she'd brought with her from Ahch-To.

               Somewhere along the line this had become part of her morning routine; taking one of the tombs and flipping through at random, stopping every so often to read a brief passage here or there, to see if something caught her attention that could further her training and knowledge of the Force. Some days, she'd had moments of real inspiration, finding a new exercise to expand her skills, or a description of the powers of the Force that let her feel a sense of accomplishment, like she was actually making good on her promise to Luke to carry on with the Jedi order. Her discovery of the passages about lightsaber construction had been a particular high point.

               Those days, sadly, were few and far between, and she'd not had a single one of them since Kuat. It had been over a month now, Luke had not reappeared since their last (rather testy) conversation, and Rey once again felt like she was floundering in a sea of unknown depth and size, with no indication in which direction she should start swimming.

               It didn't help that the pages she was landing on today were proving especially, almost annoyingly unhelpful.

               In considereth of the boundless natures of the Force, the Jedi shall knoweth all the most sacred sacraments of the said nature of living organisms-

               Ugh. Nothing made clear the sheer age of these things like their very wordy, very old-fashioned style. Next. Flip.

               The edible plants to be utilized most in the gardens of the Jedi temple that shall yieldeth the caloric variety necessary-

               Old Jedi diet rules. Riveting. Flip.

               The younglings, upon rising with the first sunlight, are to be brought before breaking fast to-

               Youngling training guidelines. Also extremely not helpful. Flip.

               In this lower chamber resideth the Jedi Force beacon, with which the whole of the galaxy may be called-

               Maybe she should give Luke's first journal another go-

               Hang on, Rey thought suddenly, her hand frozen in the process of turning the page yet again, was that....

               Looking at the page she'd been about to lose track of with new intensity, she scanned it from the top before finding the passage she'd just read:

               In this lower chamber of the sacred Temple resideth the Jedi Force Beacon, with which the whole of the galaxy may be called for the defending of Coruscant and the Temple from the most graveth of threats. Through the Force, the whole galaxy and all life is forever boundeth. Thus, the first Jedi Council determined a method by which, within the Force, a summons may be transmitted instantly to every known corner of civilization. Utilizing the structure of the Temple itself, built to focus the Force within....

               What followed after, Rey confirmed with a quick scan, was a technical guide to this device, its construction, and instructions for its use; a remarkably old piece of technology that seemed to be specially designed to be a conduit for the Force to send a message on a unique quantum wavelength that would almost instantly reach the farthest parts of the galaxy.

               By all the stars, Rey thought, a slow, warm, feeling of euphoria beginning to wind its way through her body, this is it. A unique beacon in the depths of the Jedi Temple, capable, it seemed, of sending out a signal that First Order tech would not be able to jam quickly, if at all, a call to all potential friends and allies throughout the galaxy that everyone, this time, would definitely hear.

               If there was some way- any way- to pull off finding and using such a device, they could gather enough strength to retake Coruscant, maybe all of the Core Systems. That, surely, would send the First Order reeling, and the Rebellion could once again take the offensive.

               The only question was, how to even begin planning something this complex-

               "Rey? Hey, Rey!"

               Shaken from her thoughts quite suddenly, Rey turned to see Poe approaching her from the pathway, Finn close behind.

               "Thought you might be here. Lando told us that..."

               His voice trailed off as he noted the expression on her face, one that, Rey assumed, was of pretty obvious shock.

               "Rey, are you okay?"

               Slowly, Rey nodded, a grin starting to make its way up her face.

               "Yes. I think...I might finally have an idea."

               "The whole galaxy? Really? You're absolutely sure?" This sounded so good, too good, that Finn was almost afraid to believe his own ears.

               "That's what it says. I know this is our key. I can feel it." Rey looked over at Lando and Rose, sitting side-by-side and examining the page with the schematics of the beacon with looks of intense concentration. She turned towards Leia, who was yet to say a word. "Gen- Leia. What do you think?"

               Leia sat in chair with an almost nostalgic look on her face, one hand slowly rubbing her lower lip.

               After another moment, she spoke:

               "I remember....Luke told me about this, once, after he'd explored the Jedi Temple for the first time. He'd heard of it too and wanted to see it for himself. I don't know if he ever found it though. Lando, do you think it could really work?"

               Lando looked up finally from the book, while Rose continued to scan it. "It looks legit. Real old tech, sure, but if no one's messed with it it should still work."

               "Hm," Leia's mouth tightened, "how many crewable combat ships do we have right now?"

               "Enough to start a scrap. But we sure as hell don't have enough to finish one. Not without help."

               "Well, that's where hope will have to come in, I suppose."

               "General," Poe spoke up, "look, to be frank, we don't have much left to lose. Sabatoge missions aren't getting us anywhere, and as long as we don't have a way around First Order jamming, there's nothing big we can do anyway. If there's even the slightest chance this can work, we gotta take it."

               "But..." Finn, over his shock, could finally speak again, "what about Kylo Ren? He might not know about the beacon, but if he'll probably be on Coruscant anyway. Or at least his Knights will be."

               Rey nodded, "I know. But," here she glanced back at Leia with a worried look in her eyes, "I...assumed that from the start. One way or another, I'm going to have face him. There's no other way this can end."

               She turned fully to Leia now her voice dropping down almost to a whisper, "I'm sorry."

               Leia was silent for a moment more. Everyone present could feel the weight of the moment through her stillness. Then, she smiled, gentle and loving.

               "Don't be, Rey. I agree. This is the path we're on and we have to see it to the end. One way or another, this is it. We either succeed, or this will be the Rebellion's final stand." She looked at Rey with an expression that contained worlds. "I can feel it."

               Rey nodded slowly, "So can I."

               Finn felt a familiar trickle of worry run down his throat. That hidden, tickling sensation he'd spoken about with Rose before was still running around the back of his mind, and he still had no idea why or what he should do about it. He was with everyone here, to the death, but he would give anything to feel at least a modicum of assuredness that all these people he loved so dearly would make through okay.

               "Alright then," Leia was speaking again, and Finn snapped back to the present. "How do we go about this? We need a small team to infiltrate the planet the first and activate the beacon, then have a plan to coordinate and organize anyone who responds. Rey, you are going to have lead the ground team, there's no question about that. Who else should join you?"

               Rey smiled, "My friends. Finn, Rose, and Poe. I wouldn't trust my life to anyone else." The confidence in her voice allowed the concern in Finn's heart to loosen, just a bit. Damn right, he thought.

               Poe clapped his hands, clearly pumped at the idea, "Alright! So! How soon can we head out?"

               "Hold on, flyboy," Leia said, rather winkingly, "Rey's idea is fine, but my only overriding order is that you stay with the fleet. You're still my best pilot. We're bound to be outnumbered, at least at first, and our best hope lies in having every Poe and Lando and Chewie who can fly out until help arrives."

               Poe looked as if, instead of being given an order, Leia hat just smacked him across the face. Rey stood silently for a moment, then spoke up again.

               "Well, what if he flies us down into Coruscant airspace? We'll need to have someone smuggle us down anyway to avoid detection. Poe can pose as a shipper of some sort and let us off. It'll probably take us awhile to get into the Temple and find the beacon anyway. Plenty of time for him to fly offworld again and rejoin the rest of the fleet."

               Leia considered this for a moment. "I think I can live with that. Poe?"

               Poe thought a moment, then nodded. "Yeah. Anyone can get them onworld safely it's me, and I wouldn't miss a final battle with the First Order for the whole galaxy."

               He then turned to Rey, "But take BB8 with you- he'll have orders from me personally to keep an eye on you guys."

               Rey was about to smile when a tweedle-wheee sound came from behind Poe and the little droid itself came rolling in, almost as if on cue.

               Rey couldn't help herself but laugh. "Alright. But what about you? Doesn't BB8 fly all your missions with you?"

               "Yeah," Poe responded, "but this time I could fly out with R2. He's just as creative in a pinch, right buddy?" He glanced down at BB8.

               Whistling a decidedly affirmative sound, BB8 wiggled its head back and forth in a "yes" motion that was astoundingly human-like.

               "It's settled, then," said Leia, taking the conversation back over, "Poe will land the ground team and rejoin Lando, Chewie, the Falcon, and every ship we have at a pre-settled rendesvous point. Rey, if you can get the device working, your message will be for all friends and allies of the Rebellion and of freedom to head straight for Coruscant. Once that's done, we'll move in to kick-start the battle."

               "Lando," she then turned to the last of her old friends, "you and Poe have until tomorrow morning to settle on coordinates and relay them to the rest of the fleet. After that, Poe will head out with the ground team."

               "Ay-yay, general," Lando replied, his face already filling with swaggering confidence.

               Leia turned back to the rest of the group, looking at everyone's face in turn. No one said anything, waiting on her. "That's the plan, then. You have your orders. It's now or never."

               "May the Force be with us all, one last time."

In Memoriam: Chadwick Boseman (1976-2020)

 

                Last month, in an announcement that shocked and stunned the world, Chadwick Boseman's family revealed that the beloved actor had been fighting advanced colon cancer for almost four years, and had now passed away as a result at the obscenely young age of 43. Saying goodbye to an icon is never easy, but it's especially bitter and painful when the icon in question is a young, fully-arrived superstar who should still have a whole life of achievements and accomplishments before them, capped by an extensive and hugely emotional tribute montage at an Oscars ceremony several decades from now. It feels particularly harsh right now, to lose such an incredible advocate for Black artists in the midst of **gestures at all the catastrophes currently being inflicted on minority communities by a Fascistic, racist Death Cult**.

                Chadwick Boseman had a life and career that has been cut far, far too short, but that makes it all the more astounding to realize just how much he managed to pack into his short time with us. Though the number of roles to his name will now remain criminally truncated, he is already assured a deep and enduring legacy. It wasn't for nothing that The Ringer published an article not too long ago saying, only partially in jest, that Boseman had already played (almost) every Black superhero. Attentive moviegoers were introduced to him when he became the man to finally portray Jackie Robinson in 42 and James Brown on Get On Up, both major, well-received biopics, but the world at large learned his name when he first appeared as T'Challa, the Black Panther, the first major Black superhero to head a major studio franchise. As good as he was in Captain America: Civil War (and as good as that movie was in general), that ended up being just a small taste of what he and the world of Black creators he was part of were about to present to the world.

                Black Panther, in the end, went far beyond being just another competently-produced, fun-to-watch comicbook movie. Between Marvel, DC, and their other competitors, the market is thoroughly saturated with those. No, it was something more; it was a genuine cultural moment, forcing everything and everyone else to respond to it going forward. At long last, Ryan Coogler, Chadwick Boseman, and the veritable army of Black artists around them had shown just how amazing and vibrant and beautiful a big-budget film made by Black filmmakers for (primarily) a Black audience could be. It also shattered box office records and remains one of the highest-grossing films of all time, an eternal rebuke to previous, often unspoken assumptions in the film business that "Black movies just don't make money." After Black Panther, there's no going back.

                Again, there is plenty of credit to go around as to why the film turned out so good, not the least of which being Coogler's direction and the sheer power present throughout the entire cast list (All hail Angela Bassett), but I've only recently come to appreciate the importance of Boseman's steady presence in the lead role. It's not a flashy performance, nor even the most noticeable within its own film; Michael B. Jordan's Killmonger and Letitia Wright's Shuri remain my personal favorites, as they steal every moment they spend on camera. Boseman doesn't employ the same kind of more traditional leading-man charisma that Chris Evans or Robert Downey Jr. brought to their superhero films, and I think that many, myself included, tended to downplay his part somewhat at first as a result of this. Revisiting the film now, though (and yes, the fact of his death certainly influenced this) I realized just how carefully the narrative is crafted around very small, easily-missed moments that show T'Challa going through a genuine hero's evolution over the course of the film. He begins with a more simplistic view of his father, of Wakandan tradition, and of his role, and is challenged repeatedly through hard choices and revealed truths in ways that force him to develop a previously-unimaginable new path for himself and his people. To deny Boseman's skill in giving us such a finely-crafted performance is to seriously undercut the artistic power of the film in favor of superficial, "Hey, Killmonger was actually right" hot-takes.

                I had also been unaware until now of how crucial he'd been behind the scenes in either making or advocating for some of the most important creative decisions behind the film's production, not the least of which was an insistance that none of the Wakandan characters would speak with Western accents. I can't even begin to imagine how that decision going the other way might have impacted the final product, but I am absolutely certain that it would have diminished it in a big way.

                I haven't even mentioned the fact that, in the midst of cementing his place within the first generation of the MCU, he also found both the time and the strength to add to his hero-resume by playing Thurgood Marshall in 2017's Marshall, yet another solid biopic film where he finally brought to the big screen a historical Black figure that, all too often, mainstream culture tends to forget about or misremember. It seemed there was no end to his capacity and willingness to push the boundaries of films for and about Black characters and stories.

                Sadly, his body and fate were not in agreement, and he has been taken from us in a cruel and arbitrary manner. I won't try to make a grand statement about what his life will mean going forward- as a White American, this is ultimately not my loss to mourn- but I do feel encouraged by remembering that the work he's done has already had a huge impact on American culture, and that isn't about to go anywhere. Plus, he wasn't the only one drawing a line in the sand and demanding that Black artists finally get their due; Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay, Dee Rees, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Jordan Peele, and so, so, so many others are still here and still fighting the good fight. So while Boseman may be gone, and his absense does hurt, his flame will live on. Of this, I am sure.

                Wakanda forever.

-Noah Franc

Films for the Trump Years, Part 18: Songs My Brothers Taught Me

 

 

               A great deal of this series to date has focused on the Black experience in America, specifically the ongoing legacies of racism and slavery. Given how foundational the genocide of African-American slavery is to the development of this country, one of its two fundamental Original Sins, this is not unreasonable. However, it is equally important for me to make the time to reflect on the legacy of our second Original Sin, the genocide of Native Americans that began with the first arrivals of Columbus and other white explorers, even before the introduction of slavery, and that continues, unchecked, to this day. Persistent poverty and lack of federal funding and support, along with continued efforts to desecrate Native lands with abominations like the Keystone Pipeline, are the most current iterations of this mistreatment, which in turn have directly worsened the effects of crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic, with the Navajo Nation in particular seeing some of the worst infection and mortality rates in the world.

                In large part, my delay in being able to tackle this topic stems from a profound lack of access to proper Native American representation in media; as woefully underrepresented as Black, Hispanic, and Asian-American persons are within the upper ranks of both government and cultural industries, Native American representation is even worse: the list of registered Native Americans who have served in Congress is woefully short, and it was only last year that the first two Native American women were sworn into office. Thought she didn't win her race, in that same election cycle Paulette Jordan in Idaho became the first ever Native American woman to be nominated by a major party for a governorship.

                This invisibility and erasure of Native Americans within American culture and politics extends to film as well, where the most well-known and lauded films with prominent depictions of Native American life tend to be White-oriented affairs like Dances With Wolves or Little Big Man, to say nothing of the looooong history of bigotry within the Western genres. As a result, it is extremely hard to find films made by Native American artists and starring Native American performers, since they never get widespread releases with big studio publicity and are usually not widely available on services like Netflix where most people watch their movies.

                Thankfully, I was finally able to procure access to one of the more highly-regarded Native-America-centered films of recent years, the 2015 directorial debut of Chloé Zhao. Though Zhao herself is Chinese, the film features an all-Native cast and is largely focused on a grounds' eye view of daily life on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, home to the Oglala Sioux Tribe.

                Taking place over the course of, perhaps, a few weeks within one of the reservation's towns, the film is essentially a slice-of-life exploration of how the lives of our two main characters, the young siblings Jashuan and John Winters, slowly begin to shift as a result of the death of their father in a fire. Over the course of the funeral and its related scenes, we learn that their father had had a long history of womanizing, regularly divorcing and re-marrying; he apparently had a total of 25 children by 9 different woman, most of whom Jashuan and John seem to have either only previously met in passing, or had never met at all. Slowly, the connections between these half-siblings, with wide age and experience gaps between them all, begin to open up new possibilities for Jashuan and John, both of whom seem to be just wandering through life at the beginning.

                The tragedy that sparks this is entirely random and cruel, mocking any effort to make sense of it. There is no closure, no body to be found. No proof is provided whether or not the fire was an accident or something more sinister. It simply happened, a father is gone, and the dispersed pieces of him left in the form of his many children have to decide for themselves what to make of it all. There will be no moment of clarity, of promise that everything will get better for these people. Just the resolve to keep living.

                It is to the film's credit that these metatextual ways in which the events of the film reflect on the general struggles of Native American communities are never directly referenced. They are simply there for the observant viewer. The land of the reservation itself appears dusty, dry, and very flat, stretching out in all directions. The desolate views are a constant reminder that few of the Tribes that still exist live anywhere near there actual, historical lands; all modern reservations are the remnants of generations upon generations of efforts to deliberately uproot Native communities and force them from one place to another. Not only that, it was also very much intentional that Tribes be removed, forcefully if need be, from any place with valuable resources or good farming land; they were to be shunted off to the barest, bleakest places imaginable, so that any land that offered a perceived bounty could be offered up to white settlers.

                Christianity and alcoholism play hugely important roles in the narrative as well. Jashuan and John's mother talks often of how she is trying to get over drinking by committing herself to the local church, to the point where her oldest child, a full brother to Jashuan and John who is currently serving out a prison sentence, snidely remarks that she better make sure she "doesn't use God as another man to abandon her kids for."

                Alcoholism, like many other diseases, is another legacy of colonialism that still plagues Native communities to this day, where deliberate efforts in the past to spread addiction within Tribes so as to weaken them mirror the same ways other drugs have been used against Black Americans in more recent decades, often in combination with our prison-industrial complex that seeks to use the "justice" system as another tool of oppression. At the beginning of the film, we learn that John already has a bit of a reputation with the police for hustling alcohol between towns, since it's one of the easiest ways for him to make a quick buck. Christianity, too, is something grafted on to tribal existences, as it was forced on Tribe after Tribe through forced conversions and even the kidnapping and indoctrination of Native children, right up into the 20^th century.

                And yet, they are still here, and they still live their lives, speak their languages, and endure. That alone is a miracle, but it also needs to be more actively seen and heard and felt amongst the rest of us if we are to finally break the systematic chains that continue to hobble and harm Native American communities. No true realization of justice will be complete until ALL of America's sins are accounted for.

                I assumed at the beginning of the film that the focus would be on Jashuan and her relationship with John and her mother. It quickly becomes clear that this is not the case. Both she and John are in places of deep uncertainty regarding their futures that the death of father only accentuates, and both have lessons to learn from the extended family they reestablish a connection with in the wake of the funeral. Some offer advice gleaned from their more advanced years, some offer money or concrete jobs, but all have something to teach these two about living on the reservation, and about the enduring beauty of their land, their tribe, and above all else their family, that they hadn't truly seen before.

                This is a film of quiet moments and seren beauty, tinged with the sadness of lives and existences that have been made as hard as possible by the callousness of the ghosts of the past. And yet their is a power and a nobility in surviving and making the most of it that cannot be forgotten. Watch more films like these, talk about them, and let's all commit to being truly inclusive in our calls for a better future.

-Noah Franc

Previously on Films for the TrumpYears:

Part 1- Selma

Part 2- Good Night, and Good Luck

Part 3- 13^th

Part 4- Get Out

Part 5- Chasing Ice/Chasing Coral

Part 6- The Big Short

Part 7- Human Flow

Part 8- Moonlight/Winter's Bone

Part 9- Black Panther

Part 10- Arrested Development

Part 11- Bowling for Columbine

Part 12- (T)error

Part 13- Angels in America

Part 14- Do The Right Thing

Part 15- All The President's Men

Part 16- Ken Burns' The Vietnam War

Part 17- Malcolm X

Star Wars, Duel of the Fates: Chapter Four- The Homeworld

**for previous chapters, please refer to the Table of Contents**

                The lines of starlight snapped back into a distant panorama of pinpricks across Kylo Ren's vision as his ship exited hyperspace, closing in on a planet that seemed to be almost completely covered by stormclouds. The guidance provided by the Holocron had taken his ship through nearly a dozen jumps of various lengths, some of them through nebulas and asteroid belts that were supposed to be unpassable, at least according to conventional navigational charts. Unless, he thought, you know the lone path that gets you through safely.

                The trip had been long enough to cool down the pressing irritation he'd had to endure right after he set out, after he'd had to listen to more of General Hux's petulant whining over his current excursion, as well as his decision to leave the Knights in place on Coruscant to protect High Command.

                "A leave of absence?? An indefinite leave of absence????" he'd sputtered, staring in open-mouthed shock at Kylo Ren across the command table of the Supremacy.

                "And in leiu of your power, or of proper soldiers, we are to place our security in the hands of those barbaric, blood-thirsty, half-lunatic Knights of yours??" he'd continued, beginning to stand up.

                "You will do as you're ordered, General," Kylo Ren had responded curtly, not even bothering to glance in his direction.

                "Beg your pardon, Sir, but need I remind you-"

                But what, exactly, Kylo Ren supposedly needed reminding of never managed to get out of Hux's mouth, because it was at that moment that Kylo sent him flying halfway across the bridge with a flick of his wrist. No further objections were raised after that.

                Those occasional moments when he could justify flinging Hux around starships like bags of Corellian marbles were among the only times, these days, when Kylo Ren felt something approaching happiness.

                As he got closer to the planet below- a planet that, he soon realized, he could find no official records of, and so couldn't even name yet- he could make out the swirls and shifting patterns of the clouds along its surface, sporadically turned translucent by blasts of lightning within that seemed to hold every color of the visible spectrum.

                Still being lead by the Holocron, sitting on a secure platform next to the controls, he followed the signals that came across his screen down below the level of the clouds, allowing him to see a landscape beneath that, in all directions, appeared completely blasted and utterly devoid of life. The entire planet reeked of the dark side. It was like descending into the deepest, heaviest ocean in the known universe. Every piece of his ship seemed to vibrate with its power.

                He was soon instructed to land his vessel on a craggy plateau overlooking a long valley, stretching out into the distance. A ways back from the edge stood a massive temple, not dissimiliar to the one on Mustafar in shape and structure. The key difference being, though, that temple on Mustafar had still appeared untouched and untainted by time, while this one looked like it had been repeatedly bombarded in one battle after another. Huge gaps, cracks, and holes all other the structure suggested great battles had taken place within, around, and above it. Opening the door of his ship and taking nothing other than his lightsaber and the Holocran, Kylo Ren contemplated it for a moment before making his way towards it, leaving his ship behind him.

                Slowly, he walked up the shattered steps through what remained of the entranceway. Not that being inside the remains of the temple made much difference; the ceiling at the very top had long since fallen away, leaving the interior open to the swirling, storm-filled sky above. Making his way to the center of the main chamber, or what was left of it, he placed the Holocron on the ground. Without his prompting, the lights within began to swirl and gather, and soon the image of Sidious was once again before him.

                Very good, Kylo Ren, spoke the voice. You now stand on the remains of Exegol, the birthplace of the Sith Order.

                "Exegol..." Kylo repeated quietly, looking around him again. So it was real. The supposed homeworld of the Sith had long ago passed into the realm of legend and myth, a place whispered about in the darkest parts of the galaxy, mentioned here and there in old texts, but something few still thought of as a real place. It seems he'd been as wrong about that as he had about the disappearance of Holocrons from the galaxy. It also explained why the dark side was stronger here than in any other place he'd yet seen.

                Sidious continued;

                Your trial shall begin without delay.

                Kylo nodded, "I figured as much. What do I have to do?"

                Deep in the nadir of the valley over which this temple stands, there is a unique red crystal to be found within its caves. These crystals were used to create the first Sith lightsabers. You are to descend to the base of the valley, retreive one of these crystals, and return with it to this temple. Then, you shall receive further instruction.

                Kylo waited a moment, but Sidious said nothing more after that. "Is that all? Find a rock and climb a mountain?"

                The figure smirked;

                Do not be so dismissive of this task, young one. In such a nexus of the dark side as this place, nothing is ever as it seems. I believe you will find much more than you bargained for in the depths of the valley.

                Go now. I will be waiting here, until you return.

                And with that, the figure dissolved into nothing, the Holocron below turning dark and cold once more.

                By the time Kylo neared the bottom of the valley, he'd lost track of how much time he'd spent on this barren rock. With the coud cover so absolute and unending, it's colors changing only with the occasional blast of lightning, it was impossible to tell the difference between day or night. The planet seemed to exist in a perpetual, red-tinged twilight. Even using the Force, trying to gain a sense of time passed proved impossible, so it hadn't taken long for Kylo to abandon his efforts entirely. As it was, the distance and difficulty in reaching the bottom proved even more taxing than he'd expected, his youth and physical fitness notwithstanding. Drawing on the dark side to give him strength, Kylo repeatedly pushed away any sense of exhaustion or hunger within himself, determined to get this first task over with as soon as possible.

                Any path that had once existed had been worn away with time, so he had to find his own winding way over the shards of rock that formed the ground and around the massive boulders that would occasionally appear, rather suddenly, out of the gloom before him.

                Eventually, however long it took him, the ground began to level, and glancing back at the way he came, he finally felt confident that he'd reached the very bottom of the valley. Before him stretched a pathway that seemed to stretch over the horizon, the sides of it pockmarked by holes that, he presumed, led to caves within the mountains. One of those openings, he decided, would be as good a place as any to begin looking for this crystal he was supposed to find. He sighted the one closest to him and set off in that direction.

                It was only in those moments before he reached the entrance of the cave that, for the first time, he began to sense the presence of something here other than himself. His scanners had immediately assumed the total absence of any form of organic life on the entire planet, and his additional senses via the Force had only confirmed this ever since he'd left his ship.

                He paused in his walking for a second, glancing around him a few times. He couldn't put his finger on it, but there was a growing sense in his mind that something was just about to look over his shoulder. Turning in its direction neither heightened nor lessened this sensation; the same feeling merely slipped over in the direction he was no longer looking the moment he turned its head. It was not nearly enough to actually frighten him, but he began to understand what Sidious had meant earlier.

                One way or another, he figured, the dark side would strike at him while he was here. He fully intended to be ready for it, whenever that moment came.

                Shaking off that concern for now, he continued into the mouth of the first cave opening. Standing in the entrance, it was clear that the darkness within was total, and, perhaps because of how strong the dark side was here, the Force was no help to him in trying to discern what lay within. For now, at least, he would have to stick to what his eyes could tell him.

                He pulled out his lightsaber and ignited it, the trio of lights casting a red glow into the space before him. The ground and walls seemed to be made of the same rust-colored stone as the outside, sharp and broken and craggy and jutting into the air at odd angles, making any walkway treacherous. Step by step, he slowly moved further into the cave, a winding hole that seemed to cut into and down before him.

                Once again, he could not maintain any sense of how long it took him to walk what, in his estimation, could not have been more than 20 meters, yet when he glanced back the entrance had already vanished around a corner. Looking back ahead, he started to glance around at the ground and walls for some sign of the crystal he was supposed to find.

                Eventually, perhaps with his eyes adjusting better to the red glow of everything, he began to see patches in the walls that reflected light slightly differently than the rest of the rocks around them; the glow of his lightsaber appeared slightly more metallic in these parts, and the more he got used to what this looked like, the more such patches he started to notice, all around him. Examining a sizeable spot on the wall nearest him, he made a fist and began drawing in the Force, creating a layer of telekinetic power around his clenched hand like the head of a mace.

                When he felt he'd gathered enough power, he struck directly into the rock before him, shattering it into a thousand pieces that flew out from the spot of impact. He had to close his eyes for a moment as a cloud of dust rose from the spot, and he kept them shut for a full 10 seconds as he waited for everything to settle. He then brushed his hair and face with his glove hand, opened his eyes, and waited once more for them to adjust to the light. The place where he'd struck was now a gaping hole in the cave wall, the ground around his feet littered with bits of broken rock, but also several pieces of various sizes of long, jagged-looking pieces that had that same glow about them he'd noticed before.

                Having now freed what must have been the required crystals from the stone, he examined them for a moment before selecting the sturdiest-looking one, and bent down to pick it up. But just as his fingers were about to close around it, a voice suddenly rang out behind him. A voice he'd truly believed he would never hear again.

                "Hey there, kiddo."

                Kylo Ren spun around, swinging his lightsaber so as to cast its light on the figure that, without warning, now stood just meters from him. In the glow of his blade, Kylo Ren saw his father. Han Solo.

                For a moment, neither spoke. Finally, Kylo recovered his voice.

                "You're dead. I killed you."

                "Naw, you don't say." the figure of his father, whatever it was, certainly had the tone and tenor of the legendary Solo sarcasm down pat.

                "Are you a ghost of some sort? Or are you just in my own mind?"

                "What do you think? C'mon, kid, I know you're smart."

                The more his mind turned it over, Kylo became more sure of the answer. His father was no Jedi, so this was no Force presence from beyond the grave. Couldn't be.

                "My head, then. Figures. What made you show up now? I killed you. I'm the reason Luke is dead and your wife has to hide on wayward planets like a gutter rat."

                "Yeah," Han responded, still in a tone of voice that suggested a chat more about the weather than about intergalactic war, "True. Very true. But you're still our son. You're still Luke Skywalker's nephew."

                Kylo gritted his teeth. He began to sincerely wish this was some sort of Force presence so that he could have the pleasure of killing Han Solo all over again.

                "Ben Solo is the past, dead and gone. And I am about to ascend to Sith. You have no hold over me, nor does Leia."

                "Jeez, Ben, she's still your mother. Show her some respect."

                "Enough!" Kylo wasn't going to waste another second on this nonsense. "I don't have time for your ignorance, your foolishness. Leave me be." With that, he turned back downwards to retreive the crystals.

                "You don't want to do that." The voice once again held him back, his finger just about to brush the stone.

                "Why?" he retorted, more amused than angry now, "because you won't be able to torment me anymore with your presence if I do become Sith?"

                "Because you have no idea what you'r going to do yourself if you keep this up," Han said, his voice now filled with sorrow. "That's why I'm here. And a part of you still knows that."

                For a second, Kylo hesitated. The figure that was his father just stood there, looking steadily into his eyes. Then a wave of revulsion welled up within him, and Kylo instantly hated himself for even that moment of doubt, crushing it beneath the iron will that was Kylo Ren.

                "Then that's one more part of me that needs to die," he said, and without another word, he reached back and grabbed the crystal off the ground.

                Instantly, the image of Han Solo vanished. At the same time, a shriek, carried on a fierce wind of power, swept up fro within the cave. Kylo immediately found himself realizing that these were no stale, ordinary crystals. After all the noise he'd made walking and crushing rocks, only now that he touched one of the Sith crystals did he finally feel that something had awakened. Not something alive- even now, there was no life to be sensed anywhere- but something eminently more powerful and frightening.

                It felt as if the planet itself was now stirring to come after him. He turned and quickly moved back towards the entrance, ignoring the jabs of the rock sharps stabbing into his feet and sides as he ran. The opening in the dark appeared before him, but before he reached it, a force like a gust of wind struck at him from behind, and he flew through it onto the valley floor beyond, crashing and rolling and cutting himself all over on the stone before he could finally stop himself.

                Blinking back the sweat and blood and dust that now poured down his face, Kylo looked back at the cave he'd been in just moments before. Even knowing that this was no mere animal, but some manifestation of the dark side, he had to work to convince himself that what he was seeing was real, and not some fantasy produced by his deluded and broken mind.

                Out of the cave poured black smoke, roiling and churning like streams of water, separating into rivers that snaked along the ground or tendrils that began to reach and twist through the air. Looking into the center of the maelstrom, he saw images and visions of every manner of horrific creature, a storm of claws and teeth and fists and anything else that could be used to rip or tear things to shreds. The images themselves were not nearly enough to unnerve him. What did unnerve him was the deep, almost subconscious sense of feral threat this apparition awoke within him.

                Kylo quickly got to his feet, activated his lightsaber, and began backing up as quickly as he could manage towards the incline he'd first come down, trying to both not trip over unseen rocks behind him and not be touched by...whatever these dark appendages reaching for him were. He knew, instinctively, beyond conscious thought, that falling into their grip would be his end.

                He tried swiping at a few of the shadowy lines on the ground, but his lightsaber merely passed through them, as though they really were nothing more than a gas. Backpedaling even faster now, the arms in the air began to move more directly towards him, and seemed to solidify, as if they were growing into their own form of flesh. Now, instead of aimless smoke, a dozen claws with impossible long talons and jaws with a protrusion of jagged teeth, all the same cloudy dark color, were reaching for him in unison.

                One arm shot out at him, its grip widening. Kylo waited until the last moment before ducking to the side, hearing a hissing sound as it whipped over his shoulder. A faceless mouth shot up from the ground at his leg, but he reacted instantly, pulling in the Force to leap up and backwards onto one of the prominent boulders marking the rise out of the valley.

                Landing catlike, his lightsaber extended out in his left hand, he glanced up just in time to see another of the claws lunging at him, mere meters away.

                It was too close, moving too fast, and his body reacted before he had even a moment to think. His arm snapped up, bringing his lightsaber up before his face right as the talons were about to close around his head-

                -and with a crackel of energy, slammed instead into his blade, halting in mid-air for just a moment before dissipating in a rush of wind around him, the now-smoky form retreating down the hill.

                Now, finally, Kylo Ren began to feel in control of things once more. Strange and dangerous this entity might be, but if it had to take physical form to harm him, then his lightsaber was enough to stop it. He looked down towards the many new arms now reaching up towards him, forming into new threats. Taking in the number and variety of new shapes that now collectively charged at him, still standing on the same promontory, he waited until the figures all seemed as solid and real as the stone beneath his feet, then lashed out with the Force. A crackling field of energy lanced out before him in all directions, striking the incoming foes at almost the same time, all of them instantly dissipating into shadow once more.

                Grinning, his confidence now fully back, Kylo leapt backwards back down to pathway he recalled from earlier, and continued backing slowly up the mountain, keeping his eye all the while on the writhing mass of shadow behind him.

                For a moment, it seemd as if the darkness was retreating backwards into the cave from which it had first appeared, the black smoke seeming to slowly roll down the slope, away from where Kylo was cautiously stepping back up.

                And then everything went straight to hell. With a sound unnervingly like a human scream, great columns of darkness erupted from seemingly every nook and corner of the rocks around them, an army of black arms reaching into the sky. Then, slowly, almost lovingly, they began to bend back towards the surface, reading directly for Kylo Ren.

                No more time to think. No more time to strategize or calculate. Kylo could only react. Drawing the Force into his limbs for strength, he leapt and bounded up the side of the hill, trying to keep just one step ahead of each wave of darkness seeking to strike him down. Once more, time and distance lost all meaning, as he could only focus on the narrow crest in the rocks above him where he'd first descended from his ship.

                He never knew, exactly, what caused him to trip at that moment, whether it was one of the tendrils catching his ankle or a protruding rock from the hillside. All he knew was that he was suddenly flipped forward, crashing to the ground and blinking back stars of pain that erupted inside his skull. His vision fuzzed over for an instance, and by the time he could clear his head, it was already too late. A tearing sensation burned through his side as one of the apparitions, this one in the form of a claw with three razor-sharp talons, ripped into him from behind, and he felt himself flung forward once more with the strength of the blow. At the same time, another hand struck him in the head, slashing down the right side of his face and catching his shoulder and upper breast as well.

                And then, in that instant, silence descended. His eyes shut against the searing pain of the wounds on his face and body, gasping for air. Kylo stretched out with every sense he had command of, but, inexplicably, could no longer feel any danger. Finally, after catching his breath enough, he opened his eyes and looked around him.

                Nothing. The gaping voids that had opened up in the earth around him were gone, with not so much as a single, displaced stone to suggest the ground had ever been disturbed. The sense of being watched, being followed, had vanished entirely, and for the first time since he'd arrived at this blasted world, he felt well and truly alone, as if everything up til now had been a mere dream of the Force.

                And yet, as the lines of fire that he acutely felt on his face and chest and the lines of blood that now began to color his clothing could attest, he knew he had not imagined it. Whatever had happened, he needed to get aid from his ship fast. Then, he would return to Sidious and demand answers. He didn't have time for any more games like this. Not anymore.

The Underrateds: Genesis

Towards the end of 2018, with Bohemian Rhapsody on its regrettable way to box-office and awards-season success, my good friend and fellow Cinema Joe Justin Mancini took to Facebook for a run-down of the entire discography of Queen. Specifically, he highlighted and praised a specific track from each album that he felt was underrated, stuff that tends to get overlooked when people talk about the band in favor of "We Are The Champions" or "We Will Rock You."

This is an absolute gem of an idea and it got me thinking- why not do the same with my favorite band of all time, Genesis? Spanning three decades and 15 studio albums (not to mention a number of live albums and EPs), Genesis has one of the most varied and unique ranges of musical work out there. I religiously maintain that every single person, regardless of the specifics of their musical taste, can find at least one Genesis song that suits them. That's how far the band was able to cast their artistic nets over the years they were together. And this is to say nothing of the five different (and equally unique) solo careers that each main band member went on to have both during and after their Genesis tenure. It is no exaggeration to say that Genesis literally spawned 6 lifetime's worth of great music, something pretty much no other band can lay claim to.

And so, in conjunction with a new podcast project that I, along with Justin and my brother Luke, launched on The Pop Break earlier this month called Pod on the Rooftops, here is my definitive list of the top 15 underrated Genesis songs, one from each of their official albums.

From Genesis to Revelations (1968)

Underrated Track: The Conqueror

For this album in particular, I could pick literally any track, since practically no one talks about it and none of the songs ever survived as part of the band's live repertoire. Even the band members do not speak fondly of their first time in a recording studio, which I think is a crying shame, because I find a lot to like on it, especially one of the middle tracks, "The Conqueror." Featuring driving piano chords, this is an early taste of the aesthetic Tony Banks would bring to his keyboard parts throughout the band's history and that defines so many of their greatest hits. This track was the first indication to the world of what was to come.

Trespass (1970)

Underrated Track: Dusk

Though a noticeable advance from their first album, ultimately only one song from this album broke through as a mainstay- the concluding power ballad, "The Knife." Which is a shame, because as great as "The Knife" is, the rest of the album is just as solid. My personal favorite is "Dusk," which is almost the exact opposite of "The Knife" as far as sound and tone is concerned. "Dusk" is far quieter, more finely-crafted, with a gentle, almost meditative feel to its melody and chorus. It's an amazing mood piece and one of the album's best tone-setters.

Nursery Cryme (1971)

Underrated Track: Seven Stones

This album is one of the odder ones. The first and last tracks, "The Musical Box" and "Fountain of Salmacis," are titanic musical masterpieces, two of the definitive tracks of Peter-Gabriel-era Genesis. The rest of the album.....isn't. The other songs aren't bad of course, but they just aren't on the same level.

Nonetheless, I do retain a certain affection for Seven Stones, which has a nice, contemplative flow to it, quietly building to a nicely emotional middle section. I don't think this song would have worked as well in a live setting, but the studio recording is just lovely.

Foxtrot (1972)

Underrated Track: Can-Utility and the Coastliners

Like Nursery Cryme, this album starts and ends about as majestically as possible. "Watcher of the Skies" and "Supper's Ready" were centerpieces of Genesis' live sets throughout Gabriel's time, with "Supper's Ready" in particular still standing as one of the most astonishing musical creations Prog Rock has ever produced.

Often lost amidst the well-earned hype, though, is "Can-Utility and the Coastliners;" though comparatively short by this album's standards, it packs just as intense a musical punch as the leading tracks, with a resounding instrumental section in the middle and an absolutely hair-raising finale; the effect of Peter Gabriel's voice and Steve Hackett's guitar effectively bleeding into a single sound, underlaid with Tony Banks' keyboard chords, is so guttingly effective I can't help but feel a bit disappointed that none of the later albums tried something similar.

Selling England by the Pound (1973)

Underrated Track: After The Ordeal

Many fans, myself included, consider this album to be the gold standard for early-era Genesis. It is packed from start to finish with many of the band's greatest long-form musical compositions, like "Dancing Out with the Moonlit Knight," "Firth of Fifth," and "Cinema Show," plus "I Know What I Like," the first song of theirs to inch towards the pop charts.

Though often neglected, the shorter middle songs work as a perfect counterweight to the bigger, heavier stuff around it, often serving as quieter interludes between the album's biggest musical moments.  My personal favorite out of these is the all-instrumental "After The Ordeal," a quasi-epilogue to "The Battle Of Epping Forest" that acts as a segway between that and "Cinema Show."  Funnily enough, this track was not very well-loved by the band members themselves, and there was a bit of an argument over whether or not to cut it from the album entirely.  I shall always be grateful they didn't, because the album wouldn't quite be the same without it.

The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (1974)

Underrated Track: The Chamber of 32 Doors

This concept album is one of the most unique parts of the band's discography, a strange and wandering journey that, for reasons known only to Peter Gabriel, center around a Puerto Rican immigrant in New York. The opening track, "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway," is an instant classic, and later songs like "Carpet Crawlers" and "Into The Cage" have had excellent shelf lives on the live tours over the years.

My favorite song on the album, though, is this short work in the middle, where the main character sings of his indecision and struggles with choosing from the paths and choices laid before him. A song about the ever-uncertain nature of the future, it manages to pack a lot into a short amount of time. It's also unusual for having a very pronounced (and very catchy) bass line, which is not something Genesis was usually known for.

A Trick of the Tail (1976)

Underrated Track: Entangled

Phil Collin's debut as the lead singer following Gabriel's departure, given it's very trial-by-fire-nature, fittingly begins with the explosion of sound that is "Dance On A Volcano," which, alongside "Squonk," "Ripples," and "Los Endos," all help making this one of the strongest albums in the band's discography.

When I first listened to the whole thing, though, I found myself especially drawn to the second track, "Entangled." Beginning with the soft, dueling guitars of Hackett and Rutherford and ending with Tony Banks' haunting epilogue on the Mellotron, this song about a man being treated (or, possibly, trapped) in a mental health hospital offers up some really rich imagery to contemplate while listening to the song. Plus, the lyrics end with one of the funniest punchlines Genesis ever put into a song. They were no comedians, but when Genesis went for humor, they did not hold back.

Wind & Wuthering (1976)

Underrated Track: All In A Mouse's Night

Even if it is not as well-remembered and its predecessor, the final studio album to feature Steve Hackett has some of the most unique creations in the bands' history, with a much bigger emphasis on instrumental pieces than in most of their other albums. The concluding track, "Afterglow," was the one that endured the longest as a standard in the various "old school" medleys the band would do live in the 80's and 90's, and is that rare song that works even better live than it does in a studio.

For me, though, the definitive work of the album is the insanely-epic "All In A Mouse's Night." This, for me, is quintessential Genesis; taking something as small and, quite frankly, as silly as a mouse just looking for some food and weaving an Iliad-esque saga of danger and daring out of it, replate with insane Tony Banks power chords and thundering Phil Collins drumming. It also has that classic Genesis dialogue, where perspective and tone shift between characters- in this case, the mouse, the human couple, and their cat- with each new verse, with the final one featuring the cat's pathetic attempt to massage its own ego at being bested by a mouse. Plus, the lyrics include the single greatest metaphor for eating someone I have ever heard or read.

...And Then There Were Three... (1978)

Underrated track: The Ballad of Big

Genesis had been knocking on mainstream's door for awhile now- "I Know What I Like" and "Your Own Special Way" had come close to breaking through popular consciousness- but it wasn't until after Steve Hackett left and the remaining trio began to produce a far more focused sound than before that the band finally hit the charts with "Follow You, Follow Me," the concluding track to the very aptly-named album that announced definitely that the band would remain a trio.

As great and sweet as that song is, though, I tend to prefer the more bombastic-sounding songs on the album, my personal favorite being "Ballad of Big," a subtle dig at both the cowboy fantasies we've wrapped the history of "The West" in and at arrogant, pride-driven masculinity in general. The refrain is a real head-bopper, bouncing in on these jubilant chords even as the lyrics paint a picture of a man who's ego and rashness ultimately result in his own, gruesome end.

Duke (1980)

Underrated Track: Cul-De-Sac

After a brief hiatus, during which all three band members began to branch out into solo projects and Phil Collins in particular struggled with a messy divorce, the band returned with a definitive statement that Genesis was on the charts to stay. The heavies from this album- "Behind The Lines," "Duchess," "Turn It On Again," and "Duke's Travels/End" are some of the defining tracks of 80's Genesis and remained a huge part of their live repertoire right up until the end.

Between these classics, though, the album is suffused with hidden gems from start to finish, many of which continue Genesis' grand tradition of perfecting the power chord. Revisiting the album recently, I found myself most surprised by "Cul-De-Sac," one of the later songs on the album I had never really given much thought to before. So much of the album revolves around things like love, fame, and power being transient things that can disappear in an instant, leaving you empty and embittered in its wake. "Cul-De-Sac" fits perfectly into this miluie, with a grand, resounding reframe and crashing symbols accompanying Collins' desperate-sounding vocals.

Abacab (1981)

Underrated Track: Me & Sarah Jane

This is an especially frontloaded album, where the first half is one excellent track after another, while the second album drops off in its intensity by the end. As much love as "Abacab," "Keep It Dark," and "Dodo/Lurker" (rightfully) get, I wish more people appreciated the masterful subtleties Tony Banks builds into the album's third track, "Me & Sarah Jane." This song builds from a quiet, very underplayed beginning into a soaring ending, going on an incredibly structured musical journey along the way. Is this about a breakup? Lovers who go against the grain of society and are shunned as a result? Something else entirely? I have heard this song more times than I could possible count, and I still feel like I've only scratched the surface of its mysteries.

Genesis (1983)

Underrated Track: Silver Rainbow

Sadly, this is one of the band's weakest albums. The two main tracks, "Mama" and the two-part "Home By The Sea," are phenomenal mood pieces that stand as two of the best Genesis songs of all time, but nothing else on the album is able to measure up to their standard. The sense of drop-off is not helped by the fact that the Sea tracks are followed by "Illegal Alien," which I can, without reservation, officially title The Worst Genesis Song Ever.

It's not all bad, though. Though no masterpiece, "Silver Rainbow" provides a fun, up-beat tune to liven up the album's second half. It won't find its way onto any "Best of" compilations, but it's worth a listen.

Invisible Touch (1986)

Underrated Track: The Brazilian

By far the most commercially-successful album the band ever produced, this represented the absolute height of 80's era Genesis, led, of course, by its immortal title track. And it is a packed album, a joy to listen to from start to finish, even if it doesn't make my personal Top Five list.

And yet, there still aren't too many people who remember the all-instrumental final track, a funky mish-mash of keyboard and synth noises tossed together by Tony Banks that sets a new standard for quirkiness in a discography defined by being as damned quirky as possible. Not that it's all Banks though; Mike Rutherford comes crashing in at the end at what is easily one of his all-time best guitar licks.

We Can't Dance (1991)

Underrated Track: Driving the Last Spike

The final Phil Collins album (and the penultimate of Genesis as a band, though no one knew it at the time) doesn't hit quite the same heights that its predecessor did, but it's still frontloaded with several of the band's most well-known hits, most notably "No Son Of Mine," "I Can't Dance," and "Jesus He Knows Me."

And yet, even though it featured prominently in their subsequent tour, I get the sense that "Driving The Last Spike," the bands long-form and incredibly moving tribute to the workers whose lives and safety were sacrificed to build the West's mighty railroads, has faded from people's consciousness. Which is a shame, because my God, is this song good. It combines the best of old and new Genesis in taking us on a journey both lyrically and musically, while still having the relative tightness of the band's later work.

Calling All Stations (1997)

Underrated Track: The Dividing Line

This final effort by Rutherford and Banks to keep the lights on ultimately landed with a dud, effectively ending Genesis for good. And I won't be so bold as to claim that the critics missed something; this is not a strong album by any measure. It hits a decent stride around the middle, but the disjointed beginning and downplayed end don't make for very satisfying listening. Nonetheless, there are a few tracks that shake out fine. "The Dividing Line" stands out in particular for me, largely because it's the track that feel most like an old-school Genesis tune, thanks to an extended and engaging instrumental section and its big power chords. If the rest of the album had matched it, I think it would be remembered far more favorably than it is.

Well, there you have it. The results of my massive revisitation of the entire Genesis discography. There is something immensely rewarding in returning to great works of art, time and time again. I think I'll do this again at some point. Maybe for Billy Joel.

-Noah Franc